Walter Phelps Bibbing

Who is W.P.B?

The Burial Register provides the answer: Walter Phelps Bibbing.

His death in the newspaper says ‘Little is known of Bibbing. He came to Wellington by the Waikere on the 29th of the last month’. What can we find about him …

He was found dead in his room at the City Buffet Hotel, Lambton Quay, on 8th September 1906. There are indications that deceased took poison.

His inquest held at the morgue tells us that he came from Bristol, England but for some years past had been in South Africa and Australia. He had only recently come to New Zealand. He was a smart commercial traveller, and was not given to drinking habits. His circumstances were straitened since coming to Wellington. He also suffered from an advanced stage of a disease which possible inclined him to thoughts of suicide.

In his room was found an open packet of white powder marked ‘salts of lemon’. Another packet with a similar label was found which bore the name of the Willis Street chemist William Salek. Both packets were almost empty. It was a common household preparation used for cleaning hats and removing ink stains.

Following an examination of the body, it was determined that Walter had taken a great deal of it and this was the cause of death.

Walter had said to a friend about a week before his death that he was not ‘overburdened’ with money. Among his effects was found two pawntickets for small amounts and 6d in money.

Remarks in the Notice of Deceased Estates say ‘relatives unknown’. Presumably it was some kind friends who organised for his headstone. His parents were Thomas and Dorcas. Thomas was a private schoolmaster. They died in 1915 and 1920.

Public 2/G/64

City Buffet Hotel. Photo courtesy of the Alexander Turnbull Library

Harry Clifton Gibbons

Harry Clifton Gibbons – seed merchant

Harry was born in Lincoln, England and came to New Zealand in 1884, aged 23. For many years was in the seed business on Lambton Quay trading as ‘H C Gibbons & Co’. The Lambton Quay shop contained 2000 sq ft of floor space. He also had fifteen acres of nurseries in the Hutt Valley to supply the shop with fruit, ornamental and shelter trees. They had regular shipments of Japanese bulbs and were extensive importers of ‘British and Foreign Seeds’.

He married Annie Elizabeth Young in 1890. Their daughters were Winifred Lucy, Alice Lumby and Rhoda Gertrude.

Their sons were Edward and Walter Jefferies. Sadly both died in WWI fighting in France. Walter died on 30th September 1916. In his last letter to his parents, which was received a few days after news of his death arrived, he wrote ‘I hope and request that if I go out none of you will not even put on black, as you may be certain I died happy and did my best’. Edward died on 12th September 1918. His leave was overdue but on account of the start of the Allies’ great offensive, the leave was stopped.

In 1922, the Bishop of Wellington unveiled and dedicated a memorial window in St Michael and All Angels’ church at Kelburn in memory of their two sons. Shortly after Harry & Annie departed with their daughters for an extended tour of Great Britain and Europe and to visit Harry’s sister Mrs Turner who was a ranch owner in Ohio.

Annie died in 1937. Harry died in 1941 at their home in Upland Road, Kelburn. Both were cremated at Karori.

Harry’s estate was worth £40,112. There was once a Harry Gibbons Street in Upper Hutt named after him.

Lambton Quay. Photo courtesy of the Alexander Turnbull Library.

Gibbons Store, Lambton Quay. Photo courtesy of the Alexander Turnbull Library.
Gibbons Memorial Window, St Michael’s Church, Kelburn
Gibbons Memorial Window, St Michael’s Church, Kelburn

Dulcie Quig

The Mystery of George Shaw

Dulcie Belle Quig was the first wife of Thomas Ellis Glover, a well-known Wellington cartoonist.

Dulcie married Tom in 1916, at the age of 20. Their children Dulcie and Ellis were born in 1918 and 1920 respectively. But sadly Dulcie died seven weeks after the birth of Ellis. ‘The late Mrs Glover’s endearing charm was esteemed by all those whose privilege it was to have known her’.

Three months later Dulcie’s mother Alice died. Alice represented herself as the widow of George Quig. George Quig was the name of Alice’s children. Is this the same George Shaw Quig who was buried at Karori in 1908? If so, he appears to have a wife elsewhere …

George Shaw Quig was born about 1859 in Scotland and in 1887 he had moved with his wife Mary and two daughters to Australia. In 1895, a warrant was issued in Sydney for George’s arrest, charged with disobeying a magisterial order for the support of his wife. His description read ‘dark hair, black moustache only, dark brown eyes, dresses well in dark clothes, a tailor’s cutter’.

In the meantime. George and Alice appear to have had at least three children: George Ernest (born 1894), Dulcie (born 1896) and Alice (married Arthur Law). As George and Alice were not married, it is assumed the children’s births are registered under their mother’s name, and unfortunately, we don’t know Alice’s surname so cannot trace where they were all born.

The next time we can find George Shaw Quig is in 1899 when pops up as a cutter in Christchurch with ‘world wide experience’. In 1907 he takes up a position as head cutter for Kirkcaldie and Staines and then he died on March 1908 at 225 Willis Street. He is buried in an unmarked plot at Karori Cemetery (Public 2/H/126). His wife Mary Quig died in Sydney in 1910.

Alice then starts to appear on the electoral roll in Wellington, sometimes as a widow, sometimes as a spinster. She supports her young family by running a ten-room boarding house in Abel Smith Street until it was damaged in a fire. She then relies on support from her son George junior. Alice died at her home ‘Sherwood’ at 220 Willis Street, age 54.

Public 2/K/309

More about Tom Glover: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Glover_(cartoonist)

Claude Woodford

Claude Albert Curtis Woodford – served in WWI twice

Claude was 8 years old when his father died in 1895 (see previous story). He went to Sydney Street school and eventually became a draughtsman.

Claude attested on 9th August 1914, less than two weeks after the outbreak of war. At that point he was living in Farm Road, Northland with his mother and her cousins. He was at that time a storeman at British General Electric. He joined the 5th Wellington Regiment. By 29th August he was in Samoa where he suffered from dengue fever. In March 1915, he was suffering from ear trouble. As a consequence Claude was discharged from the army until he could receive treatment. He was awarded the 1914-15 Star.

He then became a self-employed military badge maker and he started a  hobby for breeding show dogs, winning the Fox Terrier novice class in 1915 with his dog named Good Stuff.

He reenlisted on 6 January 1917 and was promoted to Lance Corporal. By September he was in France where he joined the 2nd Battalion, Canterbury Regiment. He served in the field from 18 December 1917 until 7 March 1918 when he was detached to Headquarters. In September he had two weeks leave in the UK.

In April 1919 Claude married Mabel Agnes Shute in Portsmouth. He returned to New Zealand on the SS Ruapehu on 7 June 1919 which departed from Plymouth. We are not certain how Mabel travelled to New Zealand. He was formally discharged in August 1919. Their son Thomas was born on 21 August 1921.

By 1922, Claude’s residence is recorded as the Hospital at Trentham. He died there on 21 January 1923 aged 35, from war injuries.

The funeral (which was a state charge) left Wilson’s mortuary chapel for Karori Cemetery. The “Last Post” was sounded by trumpeter Major Chegwin. Among those present was Major Rockstrow, who represented the General Officer Commanding New Zealand Military Forces, and the Mayor representing the citizens of Wellington, Sir John Luke M.P., together with representatives from the Returned Services’ Association, Women’s National Reserve, Chamber of Commerce and Commercial Travellers’ Association. Mr F Thompson represented the Messengers Department, Government Buildings where Claude used to work and the pall-bearers were four fellow-employees.

Plot Soldiers/K/20

Mabel died in 1969, aged 79, and her ashes were interred in the Woodford plot Ch Eng/E/19

Their son Thomas became a draughtsman like his father.

Read more about the 1914-15 Star here:
https://medals.navymuseum.co.nz/medal/the-1914-1915-star/

Photo courtesy of FindaGrave

Thomas Woodford

Sudden Death of Mr T C Woodford

Thomas Curtis Woodford was born in 1848 in Paddington, London to a watchmaking father. The family emigrated to Canterbury when he was ‘quite a lad’ and he learned his father’s trade in his father’s shop in Christchurch. He then went to Hokitika to manage a watchmaker’s business for Mr Proctor. He moved to Wellington in 1877 and in 1886 he married Emma Jones at St Paul’s Cathedral. Emma came from a family of early Nelson settlers.

The couple had one son, Claude, in 1887. At about the same time Thomas opened his shop on Lambton Quay at the Bowen Street end.

In the early hours of 12th June 1895, Nightwatchman Campbell ran up to Thomas’ residence in Tinakori Road and told him that his shop was in danger of being burned. Thomas dressed quickly  and was soon at the scene where it was apparent the danger had passed.

He decided to get some refreshment for the firemen and knocked on the door of the Royal Hotel at about 3am. While waiting for the manager to dress and descend, he collapsed in the doorway.  He was carried into the parlour and a doctor telephoned for, but when he arrived Thomas had already died.

A post mortem was carried out by Dr George Anson and a verdict of death from heart disease was returned by the jury at the inquest. For some time prior to his death he had been working late in order to cope with orders.

His life was insured for £250 with AMP.

Thomas is the first of 14 burials of his wife’s family and extended family in this plot.

Ch Eng/E/19

Lambton Quay. Photo courtesy of the Alexander Turnbull Library.

Walter Mansfield

Monumental Mason Makes Mischief (1917)

This wasn’t Walter’s first time in court. Back in 1896, he was there for assault charges against the Sexton of Karori Cemetery, Ernest Nash. The following year he claimed and won £5 damages from Nash for sending him to a fake address to enquire about a new headstone. In 1899 Walter was fined 40s for assaulting Nash. In 1906 Frederick Kilmister claimed £29 damages for Walter’s dogs worrying his sheep. Walter ended up paying £17.

24 March 1917, two local stonemasons Donald McVicar and Thomas Walker asked that Walter Mansfield be bound over to keep the peace.

‘The allegations were than on February 21st last, in the sacred precincts of Karori cemetery, Mansfield did use certain insulting and provoking language to complainants, and were afraid if he repeated the dose they might forget themselves and “stoush” him’.

McVicar said that Walter accused him of smothering up his maker’s mark on a headstone. A terse conversation followed.

Some choice excerpts from the case:

“You get your jobs by _____ crawling”

“Morris the undertaker is the dirty ____ who is running you”

“You were drummed out of the army and I can prove it”

“Did somebody hit him on the head with a wet brush?”

Walter’s defence lawyer said that covering up a maker’s mark was as bad as if a painter restored a picture and painted over the original artist’s name. When pressed by the complainant’s lawyer for the names of the afflicted headstones, Walter said he could not remember them but could point them out in the cemetery.

John Hickmott, another monumental mason also gave evidence that Mansfield ‘started the barney’.

Magistrate Reid decreed that in the interests of all parties it was advisable that Walter should be bound to keep the peace for six months towards both men, and that he would be required to enter into a personal surety of £50 to do so. Costs were also allowed against him.

At this point in his career, Walter had been a stone mason in Wellington for 27 years. He completed many fine works that we can still see today.

Walter Simeon Mansfield was born Water Stratford, Buckinghamshire, England in 1860. His father was a farmer and stone mason. He emigrated to New Zealand on the ‘Loch Dee’ barque in 1882 and Walter married Ada Steffert in 1886. Ada was the daughter of a German settler. Together they had eight children (Ada, Reuben, Arthur, NR, Bessie, Clara, Walter and Leonard). Two of their infant children are interred at Bolton Street Cemetery. Ada died in 1937 and is interred at Karori Cemetery in what is quite a modest plot design by comparison to the work her husband undertook (Ch Eng/U/208).

Walter died in 1953, age 93, and his estate was valued at £119. He was cremated at Karori Cemetery but there is no headstone to his memory. Instead his name is remembered on hundreds of beautiful headstones around Karori. Do look out for them when you next visit.

Sarah McKinlay and Charles Ralph

Sarah McKinlay and her husband Charles Robert Ralph

Charles was born in 1862 in Glasgow and Sarah in 1863. Charles’ parents were Charles Ralph and Ann Duncan. Who Sarah’s parents were is not clear.

At aged 19, Charles was boarding with the Reilley family and working as a blacksmith. The couple married at Dennistoun, Glasgow in 1883. They first appear on New Zealand Electoral Rolls in 1894, living at Victoria Place [Victoria Street], Wellington.

By 1899 they had moved to Regent Street, Petone.

In 1902 Charles obtained a licence for a boat skid on the Petone foreshore. The cost was 10s 6d per annum.

Sarah died on 21st August 1905, age 42. Her funeral departed Petone at 1:15pm and arrived at Wellington train station at 2:30pm, and then went on to Karori Cemetery. Over the next few years, Charles placed memorial notices in the newspaper which echo her headstone inscription: ‘Gone but not forgotten’.

Charles was the secretary of the St John Ambulance society at Petone which offered first aid training to the public. Initially this was just for men, and then a year later a women’s class was formed, initially presided over by Charles. The hurdle in establishing the class was the fees demanded by medical professionals to teach the women. ‘Those whose need for the instruction is greatest are unable to afford the subscription demanded’ (NZ Times 17 May 1909). He was also a member of the Northern Star Lodge of which he was Chief Templar.

Charles wrote his will on the 6th January 1910 and died on the 28th, age 47. His funeral departed the house of Mr W Williams, Petone at 1pm, passing Thorndon esplanade at 2:30pm before making its way to the cemetery.

In his will he specifically bequeathed his leather suite of furniture, one duchesse chest, one grey parrot, and one lady’s gold watch and chain to Mrs Jean Williams. His estate was valued at under £100.

In his will he also refers to his widowed sister in Auckland, Agnes McCabe, and a nephew William Williams and niece Annie Brett. But we have been unable to piece these family connections together.

Plot Public 2/L/23

Clarissa Bryden

[Cherub] Clarrissa

‘A Wonderful Wife and Loving Mother’

Clarrissa was born in 1898, to Frederick and Mary Jane Laughton. Her father was an umbrella maker when she was younger and then became a hairdresser. She was one of ten children. Her husband [Leonard] George was the son of Walter and Louisa Bryden. Walter was a railway waggon and carriage wheel maker.

The young couple arrived in New Zealand from Leeds in 1922, a few months after they were married. They settled in Invercargill where their two youngest children were born. It was here that George, who was an engineer, established the New Zealand branch of F & A Parkinson & Co (later Crompton Parkinson), which was a British electrical manufacturing company.

The family then moved to Wellington where George was elected to the Wellington Chamber of Commerce in March 1927. In April, Clarrissa donated money to the Eastbourne war memorial. This was as much as we could find out about her life in New Zealand.

Clarrissa died three weeks after the birth of her third son, on 18th October 1927, at her home in 400 Muritai Road Eastbourne (the numbers may have changed).

On 13 October 1928, George sold up the family home, described as the last house on the beach. Included in the sale were a new ‘Guerney’ electric range and an oak cased ‘Colombia’ Grafonola.

George and his two eldest boys set sail for Vancouver on the S.S. Niagara on 25 October 1928. They arrived in London in November and went on to his father’s house in Leeds. Newspaper reports said that he had been recalled back to head office.

Youngest son James arrived back in England in March 1930 accompanied by a typist named Marian Bellingham. Marian had emigrated to New Zealand in 1926 and her sister, Mrs H A Bick lived in Pahiatua where Marian based herself.

George Bryden and Marian Bellingham were married in London in June 1930 and went on to have six children. George died in 1960 in Leeds. Marian died in 2001 aged 96.

Plot Ch Eng 2/J/23

Dr Effie Muriel Morgan

Dr Effie Muriel Morgan 1901 – 1937

Percy Gates Morgan M.A married Mary Jane Gilmour in 1900. Percy was a graduate of the Otago School of Mines and Mary (Minnie) was the daughter of a mine manager. Effie, born in 1901, was one of four daughters born to the couple. Percy went on to become director at New Zealand Geological Survey.

Effie was the Dux of Roseneath School in 1913. She then attended Wellington Girls College and was awarded a junior university scholarship. In 1926, she qualified at the University of NZ (Otago) and graduated M.B., Ch.B. (Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery). She worked first as school medical officer in the Hawkes Bay, Wellington and Otago and later as house surgeon at Wellington hospital. She also acted as assistant medical officer at Porirua Hospital.

Of her sisters, Hazel attained a Bachelor of Arts and was a schoolteacher and Margaret was a nurse. Joyce attained a Bachelor of Home Science and became a teacher also.

Over the last 12 years of her life, Effie suffered ‘indifferent health’ and died at her home in Hataitai in 1937.

Interred in this plot – Effie’s father (d 1927) and mother (d 1952) and sisters Margaret Eileen (d 1953) and Hazel Noel Emily (d 1977). The fourth sister Joyce Gilmour was cremated at Karori in 1990 and her ashes scattered in the rose garden.

Plot Ch Eng 2/J/30

Louisa Rhind

Louisa, wife of William Graham Rhind.

Louisa was born in 1857. Her parents Arthur Harvey and  his wife Emma Vernon seem to have bounced backwards and forwards from England to the colonies. The couple were married in Ealing, London in 1854. Several children were born in London before Louisa was born in Queensland. Her brother Herbert was born in Sydney in 1858 before the family returned to London in the early 1860s.

Arthur appears to have followed his silk merchant farmer into trade and most of his siblings were merchants also.

The family returned to Australia in the early 1870s and settled in Adelaide. Arthur came representing a number of other capitalists with a scheme to build a land-grant railway across the continent to Port Darwin. This did not proceed and instead he became a land and mining speculator.

In 1883 Louisa married William Graham Rhind in Dunedin. He was the inspector for the Bank of NSW. Her father’s residence at the time was noted as Medindie, NSW.

William died aged 53 in 1898 at their home on The Terrace and was interred in Karori. Arthur Harvey while visiting his daughter on a trip from Adelaide died at her Thorndon Quay home in 1902. He was interred at Karori Cemetery in plot Ch Eng/N/49.

Louisa and her children Elizabeth (known as Betty) went to live in England in 1911. The trip was intended for Betty to further her art studies. Presumably the war delayed their return until 1919 when they settle back in Wellington. Betty became an art teacher at Samuel Marsden College.

Louisa died in 1935 at her home in Coutts Street, Kilbirnie.

Ch Eng/N/49

Louisa Rhind nee Harvey

Rhind Plot